McCoy: be prepared for rare solar eclipse

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

With just over six months until a total solar eclipse occurs, Van Wert County EMA Director Rick McCoy is urging residents, businesses, law enforcement and others to be ready for a projected large influx of people.

The eclipse will occur on Monday, April 8, 2024. It will travel across Ohio from southwest to northeast beginning around 1:54 p.m. in Van Wert County and ending around 4:27 p.m. Totality will begin in Van Wert County around 3:08 p.m. and will last approximately four minutes. All told, 35 Ohio counties, including Van Wert County, will have the entirety of their county within the area of totality, which will lead to high viewing demand locally.

During Monday’s Van Wert County planning meeting, the second such meeting this year, McCoy told those in attendance that the county’s population could double for event.

“Our population in Van Wert County is about 29,000, so the state is predicting about 58,000 people will be here,” he said. “They’ve seen from past events that a lot of people do come early – they come in and they want to spend the weekend and they want to find things to do, so that’s why we want to make things available for them.”

He added a number of communities are planning festivals and viewing parties.

McCoy noted a number of people from Fort Wayne are expected to visit Adams County or Van Wert County to see the total eclipse, the first in Ohio since 1806, the last in the U.S. until 2044, and the last in Ohio until 2444. He also said people from as far as the west coast are expected to head this way, and he said I-75 will be a major thoroughfare, along with I-69. Roads are expected to be congested prior to and immediately after the event.

“What we saw in the 2017 eclipse (in Kentucky) was highways were completely bogged down and (there were) accidents, road rage, all kinds of problems,” he stated.

He said traffic management will be key along with infrastructure that will be tested. He cautioned wi-fi and cellular services could be overloaded with all of the extra people here. McCoy also noted residents should be stocked up on food prior to the weekend before the eclipse.

“Don’t wait until that weekend because if we do get that influx of population coming, they’re going to clean out our grocery stores,” he stated. “We need to advise our local restaurants to have a good supply of their menu items for the surge in population.”

The Van Wert County Fairgrounds will be available as a camping site for the eclipse and marketing manager Marie Miller said plans are being formed to have vendors and others at the fairgrounds. Wetzelland will not open for the event but will rent out property for the eclipse.

As far as accommodations such as hotel rooms, McCoy said some counties in the affected area are seeing reservations starting to come in. Seneca County is reporting rooms at $600 per night and Richland County is reporting rooms at $800-$900 a night.

Addressing the topic of school on the day of the event, McCoy said the eclipse will be a great educational tool before, during and after. Some schools in the affected area have already made plans to close for the day, while others are still mulling what to do. He did note concern about dismissal time, if schools are in session that day.

“Dismissal time is at the time of totality,” he said “Totality is at 3:08 p.m. and of course after that totality some of the traffic starts hitting the road and a lot of traffic is going to be on our back roads. U.S. 30, our main route, is going to be hard to cross for buses, so every community across our state that is experiencing this, their superintendents are talking whether it’s plausible to have school or not have school.”

Crestview Superintendent Kathy Mollenkopf said no decision has been made on the day yet but she added when it does happen, she believes the county schools will be unified.

More planning meetings will be held in the future to firm up plans.